Chapter 7
Strictly speaking, all of this was only possible because that man had handed over the rabbit.
‘I don’t even know him. I shouldn’t think ill of him for no reason.’
Prina shook her head, as if to cast off unnecessary suspicions.
“…But why did he ask my name?’
I should have lied. Flustered, I ended up giving my real name.
“Pretty.”
“I said it’s pretty. Your name.”
He said it was pretty. When she looked at him in surprise, he confirmed it again.
He said clearly: Your name is pretty.
What could he do, now that he knows my name? Would he come looking for me?
Feeling an unexplainable sense of unease, Prina unconsciously clutched the sheet. Sweat dampened her closed fist.
But really. Even if he knew just her name, what could he possibly do?
This monastery wasn’t a place outsiders could enter easily.
Still, it was strange. Just the fact that he knew her name, that he could identify her, left her with a sense of unease.
It was like being prey, with a hiding place discovered by a predator.
The ‘secret forest’ was a place she’d gone to every day since childhood. Yet this was the first time she’d encountered someone like that.
‘And that black hair…’
Of all his striking features, his hair color particularly weighed on her mind.
‘Was he treated as ominous, just like me?’
Prina chose to comply and hide herself, but he revealed himself as if it were nothing. People cast out by a group often become prickly toward others or retreat into a world of their own. Prina only tried to blend in because she had nowhere to hide, though her desire to hide remained.
Maybe that’s why he lived hidden in the forest. Who knows, these mountains are deep and the secret forest is vast. If he lived there, no one would ever find him.
The thought of someone living in such a place, hiding, made her feel a little sorry for him.
“Hey, Prina.”
Lost in thought, Prina only looked up when the senior nun was standing right in front of her.
“Yes?”
“Prina, what are you thinking about so deeply? Someone calls you and you don’t even respond.”
“I’m, I’m sorry. Is something the matter?”
Prina put her hands together and asked politely.
“The Mother Superior is calling for you.”
* * *
Outside the carriage window, trees sped by. Perhaps because the monastery was so far from the world, it was in an extremely remote place that was difficult even to reach. The road there had been that way, and now, the road away was the same. Just an endless, monotonous forest path.
The luxurious carriage rattled and swayed as it traveled the bumpy trail. Inside, two men sat facing each other.
“Prina, was it?”
After gazing silently out the window for a while, the king casually asked his aide.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Prina.
The king savored the unfamiliar name. He hadn’t expected that girl would even have a name.
It’s natural for living things to be given names, but since he hadn’t named her himself, he’d never bothered to remember.
But the child abandoned at the monastery had grown alone, blooming like a flower breaking through a snowy field.
“What did you think of her?”
At the king’s question, the aide thought for a moment, then answered cautiously.
“Her clothing may have been plain, but she was incomparably beautiful.”
Just as the aide said, she had certainly grown up beautifully. The king recalled seeing Prina from a distance.
Even in a simple nun’s habit and a veil, she was instantly recognizable. Skin as white as snow, lips red like a flower blooming in a snowy field. Her features were delicately shaped, just like a porcelain doll.
He had heard that she endured all sorts of hardship caring for gravely ill patients at the monastery. Perhaps because of her noble birth, there was a pure and dignified air about her.
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